Karen DeSoto Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Dispute Resolution developed the Institute along with co-founder and co-director David Weiss, a visiting scholar at New jersey City University, located in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The Institute is an academic program under the School of Business at New Jersey City University (NJCU) with a mission to

Promote international negotiation and mediation techniques to manage disputes in cross border commercial, investor-state and general conflict resolution forums. The Institute applies these principals through applied research in the fields of negotiation and mediation studies. The Institutes mission: “to promote trade and commerce applying international mediation from a business school prospective and promote New Jersey as a place to conduct cross border disputes.

IDR has several areas of focus including:

Applied Research in field of mediation, consisting of seminars, exchange programs, field work in mediation with NGOs, publications, Degree-based initiatives, and legislative policies.

The key objectives to implement this mission to promote international cross border negotiations and mediation in the State of New Jersey, promoting global trade and commerce through Cohort Programs to develop modalities with others International Business Schools to to manage dispute risks, developing the International Dispute Resolution Center of New Jersey to handle cross border cases, and foster relationships with stakeholders in government, NGOs and international organizations to promote Center goals in applied research and fieldwork studies.

Karen DeSoto traces philanthropy roots back to early America. Her belief that “philanthropy doesn’t have to be only the wealthy donating millions of dollars, but can also be regular citizens coming together to donate their time and energy for the advancement of the general good” is confirmed by the early settlers.

Karen Desoto is named to Top 50 Most Influential people in Hudson County. The Hudson Reporter complied a list of ‘movers and shakers’ with county-wide and local power; these were people chosen from the arts, business, community advocacy, and the politic arenas.